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Theresa May’s proposals for a temporary customs “backstop” to prevent a hard border in Northern Ireland is “not acceptable” to the European Union and cannot be time-limited, Guy Verhofstadt has warned.

The European Parliament's chief Brexit co-ordinator has dismissed claims that any continued alignment with the European Union - in the event that a solution cannot be reached - will end in 2021.

Whilst the Prime Minister has insisted that the backstop, which was agreed by the UK and EU last year, would be time-limited, Mr Verhofstadt said that it was not possible to transition between three different customs arrangement in such a short space of time.